Gbagbo’s Ivory Coast home under heavy attack

HEAVY arms fire rang out near the home of Ivory Coast’s incumbent president, who remained holed up in a subterranean bunker, as forces backing his rival assaulted the residence in an effort to force him out.

Forces protecting Laurent Gbagbo appeared to rally last night, pushing back the armed group fighting to install democratically elected president Alassane Ouattara.

One of Ouattara’s fighters, Yves Doumbia, said their forces breached the gates of the ruler’s compound in Abidjan, only to be repelled by heavy fire. “We retreated but we are preparing for a second assault,” he said.

Gbagbo has suffered debilitating losses this week. UN helicopters attacked and destroyed his arms depots on Monday and on Tuesday his soldiers were seen abandoning their posts across the city.

Yet 65-year-old Gbagbo appears to have calculated his rival’s weakness: Ouattara knows that he needs to take Gbagbo alive in order to maintain international support, and avoid further alienating the 46% of the electorate that voted for Gbagbo in last year’s presidential election.

A spokeswoman for Ouattara said that the forces would eventually succeed in forcing out the leader who has refused to cede power after losing a November election.

“At the current moment they have not yet captured Gbagbo but it will happen soon,” Affoussy Bamba said.

“They opened the gates and noted that the residence is surrounded by heavy weaponry,” she said. “Now the objective is to capture him.”

Gbagbo had appeared to be on the point of surrender on Tuesday, sending an emissary to meet with foreign ambassadors in order to negotiate the terms of his resignation.

But a senior diplomat said the overture appeared to be a foil, and that Gbagbo was simply playing for time.

“The conditions set by President Ouattara are rather clear. He is demanding that Laurent Gbagbo accept his defeat and recognise the victory of the legitimately elected president,” French foreign minister Alain Juppe said.

“That’s where we are today, and alas, words have given way to weapons.”

Earlier in the day, Radio France International broadcast an interview with Gbagbo in which he said he had won last November’s election and that there was no question of him leaving.

“We are not at the negotiating phase. And my departure from where? My departure to where?” he said.

In Europe, Gbagbo’s spokesman attempted to spin the attack on the residence by Ouattara’s forces as a foreign intervention. He claimed it was the French that was storming the home of the former leader, a claim the French military vigorously denies.

UN helicopters, helped by French troops, bombarded Gbagbo’s arsenal on Monday, acting on a Security Council resolution authorising them to take out his weapons which had been used against the population.

However, international forces were not involved in the ground attack on the residence, a French spokesman claimed.